A close fight is expected between Kirti Azad and Anshuman Gaekwad in their battle for a berth in the Board of Control for Cricket in India apex council at the Indian Cricketers’ Association (ICA)’s elections on Friday.

The Board’s apex council will feature two former cricketers out of which, one of them has to be a female representative. With former India Test captain and ex-cricket advisory committee member Shanta Rangawamy set to be elected unopposed, the remaining slot boils down to the battle between Azad and Gaekwad.

“It’s difficult to say whether Kirti or Anshuman is the favourite. It’s online voting and more than 1200 persons all over the country will vote. But it’s going to be a close, tough fight between the two of them.

“No matter who wins, it will be good for Indian cricket. Maybe the political connection could give Kirti a bit of advantage, but you never how voters will react,” one of the ICA members told The Telegraph.

Some of the voters feel the elections could be “polarised” to a certain extent. “Anshuman is predominantly a pro-Board person, while Kirti is anti-Board. So, obviously cricketers angry with Board would vote for Kirti, while those who don’t feel so strongly against the Board will vote for Anshuman,” said another member of the association.

A few members seem a tad confused with the entire system as there’s no “official source of communication”.

“The system is not organised as yet. It’s tough to make sense of what’s going to happen because there’s no official source of communication. Everyone is going to vote individually and there’s not much conversation happening.

“Precisely, the system is confusing which will obviously take its own sweet time to settle down. The Board has a systematic way of holding elections, but it doesn’t seem to be the case here,” said the member.